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Two minor but noteworthy Marketplace changes

Microsoft has announced a couple of changes to the working of the Windows Phone Marketplace that are pretty minor, but worth noting.

First, the Zune desktop software won’t be your portal to browse & install apps on your Windows Phone. It has to be done either in the phone or via a web browser. All the OS updates will be delivered via Zune, though. Microsoft says that the majority of users download/install apps in the phone itself or the web browser which is easily accessible via a Mac or a PC. You can check out the Windows Phone web marketplace here.

Second, Microsoft will also be requiring Windows Phone devices to run Windows Phone 7.5 to download, update or rate apps. Microsoft has done a fantastic job of ensuring that every Windows Phone device sold to date gets the update. So, if you haven’t updated your device yet (You’re crazy if you haven’t), do it. There are more than 500 new features in the new release that I’m sure you’d want to check out. You can update your device to the latest version of Windows Phone by following these steps.

Microsoft seems to be focusing on things that will matter in the future & eliminating stuff that is not that necessary. It seems that Microsoft is putting all of it’s engineering effort & resources towards feature improvements & additions. A good thing, indeed.